I don't know if it's under-reporting to say I'm a beginner. I have some machining experience and a lot of mechanical and engineering background. I sold my bridgeport years ago and bought a little toy china-mill. It's a Precision Mathews, so it's not the crappiest thing out there. This is the first lathe I have ever owned. It was reported as freshly rebuilt by someone's grandfather who was apparently a machinist. It looked clean, I did a few basic checks and trusted the story as it wasn't mounted and I couldn't run it.
Unfortunately I had to rebuild the apron since it was so poorly adjusted that the gears were binding on the worm gear and it wouldn't shift into auto-feed. The split nut is pretty badly worn, but I was able to cut a reasonable set of threads. This evening I decided to stick an indicator on the chuck and found it had about 0.025" runout. I will probably turn the backplate true next time I have a chance.
As you can gather, the machine has some deficiencies that I'm trying to address/tune up, but at least it's pretty with a new coat of paint
Seems you have "enough" background - and personal initiative - to "get 'er done", then.
It will help others to help you if you dig deep into PM's several TS-rebuild threads - most any "split" 2-piece TS, any make of lathe, is done the same way, so you'll "get it" as to where Rich is guiding you from a 10EE or SAG Graziano TS rebuild as easily as a SB one.
"In the meantime"... two things:
- assessing the bed condition is crucial. If it is badly and unevenly worn or significantly out of true, "twist" wise, you can NOT reliably sort the TS (or anything else) to "repeat" reliably at different positions.
- You have only the one lathe and the one.. millish-thing.
You'll want to be able to make a few things whilst the restoration proceeds.
Consider acquiring a small boring head, Criterion, used, or Criterion-knock-off, new. These have threaded "tails", and (some of) those tails are CHEAP. Probably an R8 suits the PM mill, 2 MT for the lathe TS.
Now.. "old trick" for FUBAR TS on a "company lathe" a Machinist (Union Shop..) was
not PERMITTED to rebuild, was to put a boring head into the TS, mount a stub center or bushing with a center-drill set into it, Weldon-style flat & setscrew, and then..
"Clock" the boring head slide at an angle to where it could compensate for BOTH vertical and horizontal error and "dial in" the needed on-axis or geometric center with the slide mechanism of the boring head.
Also wants a rod or such to prevent rotation, but
voila - most boring heads already have a transverse mount hole for axial cutters anyway, so that isn't hard to rig-up.
This .. is a "monkey patch". No argument.
BUT not only can it "get you by", it can also be used to set-over for turning tapers, error compensation included.
And it is still a boring head for a mill. Which you happen to have.
Little or no "waste" in the spend, IOW.
Even if.. you find the best way forward on this lathe is .. to trade it for a BETTER one.